Possible Surgery (labrum tear)

[BLWN DSG]

Well 9 weeks after my stage 3 AC seperation in my shoulder and 8 weeks of physical therapy, I was still getting clicking and popping, no real pain but just soarness occasionally. Went back to the Orthopedist and he scduled an MRI...by the way, those MRI machines SUCK, way to damn small, freaked me out big time!

Anyway, looks like I have a "small" as he calls it Labrum tear....

I have an appointment with the surgeon to go over my options and see what we are going to plan to do. My guess is that I will eventually need some sort of surgery down the road at some point in time.

I know it is a scope type surgery but if anyone here has had this type of surgery what is your recovery like?

 

[snakecharmer]

I had a similar injury to my right shoulder that was called a SLAP tear - superior labrum anterior to posterior. It's not a fun surgery but not the horrible experience so many said it was. My acl was much worse. The PT is gonna suck at first when
They make you start moving it, you just have to suck it up and deal with it. Good luck.

 

[ff500]

I just had a medium tear repaired along with some bone spurs scraped in my right shoulder. The toughest time was the first few weeks, I had an icing machine ( cooler with electric pump to ice my shoulder down ) and had to sleep in a recliner. I was in a sling for 3 weeks, 24 hours a day.

I started PT around my 4th week after surgery, it took about 30-35 visits of PT, some of those visits were extremely tough and painful. I'd say now I'm at 90%. I don't think I'll ever be at 100% again.

After the surgery I was on percs because of the pain, you need to stay ahead of it. After 4-5 days I only needed pain meds at night to sleep, after a few weeks it was just tylenol.

I still have trouble sleeping some nights and have some days where it bothers me.

My Dr said this is the type of injury that would knock you out for a full season if you were a professional athlete, so it is a big deal. Best to get it done or it could just get worse. My tear was an inch when I had my MRI done, 6 months later when I had the surgery it had got worse and was an inch and a half.

 

[GodStang]

Had the camera surgery on my back. Lame for about 4 weeks. About to get it again.

 

[Socal Mach]

A guy I used to work with had a torn labrum and was down 6 months from flying. He said the therapy sucked afterwards.

 

[BLWN DSG]

I am really curious how this is going to work out. The dr. said it was "small" so I don't know what that means exactly. What is going to suck is I have already done 8 weeks of PT for the AC seperation....

 

[GodStang]

I had two discs done on my back and the scar is less than an inch long.

 

[bullitt1672]

I tore my anterior labrum when I was 17 (21 now). I had the scope surgery and was in a certain type of sling that didn't give my surgery arm/shouler hardly any movement for about 3 weeks, then to just a regular sling for week or two more. Had physical therapy for about 6-8 weeks after the sling came off, maybe longer don't really remember. I had it done in beginning of winter and don't think I was 100% until around beginning of spring. Doctor said it was the worst one he's seen and had almost no tissue to repair and work with because it was all scar tissue from letting the injury go too long. My arm never really hurt but my arm/shoulder would pop out of place if I moved it a certain way, or if my arm was moving forward and got stopped. It was very painful when that happened, luckily it always popped back into place on its own. About a year after the surgery I tore it again, but it hasn't given me much trouble, just can't move my arm back very far but have no pain unless it does pop out. 3 little scars from the where they went in with the scope, almost gone now. Hope this helps and good luck!

edit: Yes physical therapy is not fun at all the first few weeks, I was always scared it would pop out again when doing the exercises!

 

[ff500]

small tear is an inch or less

medium tear is one to two inches

large tear is two or inches or more

My tear was medium and was between 1 1/2 and 2 "

I had a small tear in my left shoulder which didn't require surgery, had to do some excercises to help heal it along.